Not that the problem is confined to the US, with closures some tagged as temporary at the time also happening across Europe and in Australia. We, Yahoo, are part of the Yahoo family of brands. Thus, the President whose administration has been actively trying to limit the domestic oil industrys ability to get its business done is now so desperate to shift blame for high gasoline prices that he resorts to the pretense of being disappointed that that has been happening. if(window.innerWidth <= 1023){ HOUSTON, April 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- LyondellBasell (NYSE: LYB) . ExxonMobil's profit in the first quarter more than doubled from a year earlier. Of the three California refineries undergoing scheduled maintenance, one is in Benicia and the other two are in Los Angeles. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. The Biden administration has reportedly considered addressing the declining refining capacity, but has yet to act on the issue. Hurricane Ida shuttered or curtailed output at six refineries in Louisiana that process 1.92 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude, around 12% of U.S. refining capacity. Five refineries have shut down in the United States in just the past two years, reducing the nation's refining capacity by about 5 percent and eliminating more than 1 million barrels of fuel. Shell announced in November 2020 it would be shuttering the refinery after attempts to sell the plant between July and October were unsuccessful. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected]. The company ceased refinery operations at Cheyenne the following month, making it the first U.S. refinery to close in 2020. They said the numbers just didn't work, and closed up shop. Major refinery operators have largely opted to upgrade facilities rather than construct new greenfield plants because of the projected fuel demand decline in coming years and lengthy regulatory . The obvious answer is to convert what was once an oil refinery into an oil terminal. The national average price of gasoline surpassed $5 a gallon for the first time ever this month. But this is a problem for which there are no quick remedies. So who cares about refined products? Neste, having ceased refining operations at the Naantali refinery in Finland, announced plans to develop the Porvoo refinery in their own words - "towards co-processing renewable and circular raw materials.". US President Joe Biden departs Marine One after, arriving in Washington, D.C., US, on Tuesday, June 14, 2022. September 26, 2022 Refinery maintenance along the West Coast is being blamed for the sudden spike in the cost of gas across California after weeks of downward trending prices. The U.S. hasn't constructed a major petroleum refinery since 1977 even as fuel demand and domestic oil production have surged in recent decades. Lyondell could permanently close the refinery ahead of the December 2023 deadline if one of several major production units is shut and cannot quickly return to production. Meanwhile, the operator made modifications in 2014 and 2015 to process 3,500 barrels of vegetable oils and beef tallow per day. By clicking submit below, you consent to allow us to store and process the personal information submitted above to provide you the content requested. The previous weeks average was $5.64, according to AAA. The reasons for those closures are due primarily to governments. De Haan added that one wild card could be Hurricane Ian, which, as of Monday, was approaching the Gulf Coast. According to a report from Reuters, published in June of this year, the refining capacity across the US fell by 4.5% during 2020, the largest drop since the recession of 2012. The refinery has since been bulldozed. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Some refineries shuttered during the pandemic-induced recession in 2020, when demand for gasoline took a nosedive. Pledges Additional $2 Billion In Security Assistance To Ukraine, Three Fires At Pemex Facilities In One Day, Native Americans Urge Biden To Halt Offshore Wind Permitting, High Energy Prices Force Worlds Largest Chemicals Company To Cut Jobs, U.S. This is the possibility being explored by ExxonMobil for the Slagen refinery in Norway, with the refinery continuing to operate until any such conversion currently the subject of a consultation with employees has taken place. Since the start of the pandemic, statistics related to Covid-19 hospitalizations in the world "only got worse month by month . And there's a good chance it never will. The permitting and building of a new greenfield refinery would take at least a decade; major expansions take several years from cradle to startup. Unless otherwise stated, photos Big Stock Photography Dreamstime Photos Google Maps Thompson Reuters. U.S. gasoline inventories started their most recent build streak during the last week of 2021, gaining 27.4 million barrels since December 24, according to EIA data. That's left the country unable to meet its fuel needs as more people are commuting, traveling and driving as they emerge from the throes of the pandemic. Calcasieu Refining shut its Lake Charles plant in early August of 2020, according to the Louisiana Department on Environmental Quality, citing demand loss during the pandemic. , which has scheduled its own aging Houston-area refinery (capacity: 268,000 bopd) to be retired at the end of 2023, announced last month that it would retire the plant early in the event of a major equipment failure, given that it would be impossible to recover the costs of necessary repairs and upgrades prior to the scheduled retirement date. A key Texas petroleum refinery that produces more than 200,000 barrels of fuel per day is facing a premature shutdown that could increase pressure on domestic fuel supplies. Indeed, Galp halted operations at the Matosinhos oil refinery complex in Portugal from early 2021, citing a 16% drop in throughput in the fourth quarter of 2020. are a crude refinery and a synfuels refinery after the biggest crude oil refinery ceased refining at the end of March 2022. In Germany, the Heide refinery has reduced staff numbers by 106 positions, but is looking to the future with confidence due to plans to change the business model of the plant to concentrate on the production of green hydrogen. The refinery's major units are its two crude distillation units (CDUs), two cokers, gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracker (FCC), sulfur recovery units, and certain hydrotreaters, the. Fire broke out in the early morning that triggered a vat of butane to ignite with an explosion so large that it was detected from space. It had been $5.64 last week. The reasons for those closures are due primarily to governments. In 2011, the refinery was idled. All rights reserved. LyondellBasell will be closing its Houston refinery and exiting the refining industry, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The end of the Keystone pipeline is also troubling for the oil gas . Colorado's only oil and gas refinery is offline and might not resume full operations until March, raising concerns about gas prices and local air quality after a series of recent incidents. The oil company's Santa Maria Refinery has about 110 . Of the two remaining Australian refineries, Geelong in Melbourne is the largest, with a capacity of 128,000 bpd, but is by no means guaranteed to remain in operation with the owners, Viva Energy, accepting a government subsidy but refusing to rule out closure. The Golden State is bearing the brunt of these shutdowns, which are triggering a steep uptick in the cost of a gallon of regular unleaded fuel. Well, it turns out a lot of people need refined products," says Blanch. Exacerbating these high gas prices is a huge shortage in refining capacity in the U.S., which isn't likely to be resolved any time soon. hide caption. U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty in Louisiana struck down Biden's Jan. 27, 2021, executive order in June, dealing a major blow to the president's plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions from . (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images). Throughput at its French refineries was up 3% on the quarter at 274,000 b/d but remained 46% down compared with 2019. Due largely to the difficulty in obtaining federal permits and the constantly rising costs associated with complying with expanding environmental regulations, the U.S. has not seen the groundbreaking on a new greenfield refinery with at least 50,000 barrel per day capacity since the late 1970s. Nothing contained on the Web site shall be considered a recommendation, solicitation, or offer to buy or sell a security to any person in any jurisdiction. That would be a pretty clear antitrust violation, Borenstein said. It's no surprise that this is raising eyebrows, given the president's stated goals on an energy transition and also his promise to voters on the campaign trail that he would "end fossil fuels.". No off-topic remarks. At a time when gas prices are at the highest level in history, hurting regular Americans, he points out that Big Oil companies are enjoying record profits. Dow and X-energy to build U.S. Gulf Coast nuclear demonstration plant, Oil slips as rising supplies balance Chinese demand hopes, Reporting by Laura Sanicola 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money. Given that the longer term direction of travel is away from oil and toward renewables, however, the more forward thinking companies are probably those which are pivoting their refinery sites toward renewable technologies. The question for anyone working in the industry is whether the sector will spring back as lockdowns lift across the world, or whether the impact of the pandemic was merely an accelerating factor within a process which was already underway. Friday, February 11, 2022 3:56 am. This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone. At the same time, Goldman Sachs predicted refinery rates in 2021-2024 to be 3% lower relative to 2019, something which they felt would lead to more competition and permanent closures. By Mike Lee | 06/16/2022 07:17 AM EDT En cliquant sur Refuser tout, vous refusez tous les cookies non essentiels et technologies similaires, mais Yahoo continuera utiliser les cookies essentiels et des technologies similaires. By Alex Kimani - Dec 29, 2022, 11:00 AM CST. France's TotalEnergies reported higher refinery throughput in Q3 amid improved margins. Sadly, it always seems to take a crisis for politicians to begin to wake up to the folly of their own actions. This proved not to be the case in February of this year, however, when unseasonably freakish arctic weather temperatures dropped as low as -13C in Austin, -15C in Dallas and -23C in Amarillo led to the largest refineries in North America having to be shut down across the state. She recalled paying closer to $5.25 per gallon less than two weeks ago. U.S. refineries are already going gangbusters right now. All defendants in crime reports are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The refinery is among the top 25 largest-capacity facilities in the U.S., according to the Energy Information Administration. Information about your device and internet connection, like your IP address, Browsing and search activity while using Yahoo websites and apps. We will remove any comments or commenters that do not follow this commenting policy. document.write(write_html); The Houston, Texas, facility which is operated by LyondellBasell Industries, spans 700 acres and was built in 1918 is scheduled to permanently close by the end of 2023, but could shut down earlier if a "major equipment failure" spreads to major units, two people familiar with the issues told Reuters. Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories. This is so, so frustrating, Hogan said. CRONIN: That's Patrick. In one particularly unusual move, India's Reliance Industries said it would simply sell the crude oil that it had in transit at sea, rather than allowing the cargo to arrive at its refineries. By clicking Accept all you agree that Yahoo and our partners will process your personal information, and use technologies such as cookies, to display personalised ads and content, for ad and content measurement, audience insights, and product development. Its hard to get a grip on what prices will do, he said. When the pandemic hit and demand for oil evaporated during the recession, refineries took a big financial hit when the price of gasoline plummeted. "The narrative until today was that we were going to be driving electric vehicles by the end of the year. Report: Biden Shuts Down Domestic Oil and Gas Supplies, Calls for More Production. On Thursday, the. Bidens intemperate outburst at ExxonMobil last week and todays letter indicates Mr. Yergins fears were well-founded. Four concurrent production shutdowns in California is unfortunate timing, but its impossible for refineries to schedule maintenance around each other, said Severin Borenstein, a UC Berkeley energy economist. Until now, California fuel costs followed worldwide trends. SALT LAKE CITY, UT - MAY 24: A driver unloads raw crude oil from his tanker to process into gas at Marathon Refinery on May 24, 2022 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Read the full story at theDaily Caller News Foundation. It isnt as if these facilities have been idle. The Paramount refinery began operating in the 1930s. var write_html = `

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